What not to do with a burnt child
In case of a burn, do not cool a child’s body with ice-cold water. net photo
What you need to know:
Wash the burnt area with cool, clean water. This will help to reduce some of the pain for your child. It is best to do this for around 10 minutes if possible.
This week, a nine-month old girl was brought into our hospital (Entebbe Grade B) with her face burnt from hot porridge. The mother had been told that she should use toothpaste and the burn was now badly infected. She wanted to know how she should treat burns in case they happened in the future. Here is my advice.
What to do
Take your child away from the thing causing the burn.
If their clothes are on fire, roll them on the ground or wrap them in a blanket to stop the flames.
Remove any clothes covered in hot liquid or that were on fire. This will stop the burn getting bigger. However, leave any clothes that are stuck to the skin as pulling them off will hurt your child.
Wash the burnt area with cool, clean water. This will help to reduce some of the pain for your child. It is best to do this for around 10 minutes if possible. If the hands or feet are burnt then they could be placed in a bucket containing cool, clean water. Do not use ice-cold water or place the child under cool water as this may make the child too cold.
Dampen a clean piece of cloth with water and cover the burnt area with this. This will help to ease the pain and to stop infection getting into the wound.
If the hands or feet are affected a clean plastic-bag could be used as a covering.
Keep the rest of the child warm by wrapping them in blankets
Give some painkillers. Panadol or ibuprofen syrup would be fine.
What not to do
Do not apply anything to the burn other than cool clean water and a damp cloth. Things like moisturising creams, pastes, herbs or even animal dung can cause serious infections and make it hard for the burn to heal. They will hurt too.
Often a burn will cause blisters. Don’t pop the blisters yourself. Leaving the skin on reduces the chances of infection. In hospital, very large blisters may be popped by the nurses or doctors.
Stop burns from happening
As we say in medicine, prevention is better than cure. To stop your child being scarred for life because of a burn, never allow them to play close to any kind of fire and do not leave cooking stoves unattended.
If you are cooking hot liquids make sure they are out of reach of children, and remember toddlers are good climbers. It is also important to check the temperature of any food or drink before you give to a child, as they often spill it over themselves and it will burn them if it is too hot. Lastly, do not leave young children in the care of a brother or sister who is a child themselves.
The writer is a paediatrician
